A Wheel of Fortune contestant did so well at correctly guessing a phrase that a surprised Ryan Seacrest pretended to search her for an earpiece!
In a clip shared to the game show’s YouTube account Friday, Jan. 17, Seacrest, 50, seemed stumped as to how one woman won a $50,000 prize in record time with virtually no clues during a bonus round.
As the video began, Seacrest stood next to contestant Traci during the season 42 episode, part of Cruise Week. With her husband watching close by, she and the host prepared to spin a wheel to see what her next challenge would be.
“Good luck on this wheel. Spin it one time and let’s see where you land,” Seacrest said, letting Traci know she could possibly become $100,000 richer. “It’s been your lucky night, so maybe we’ll have some more good luck.”
After the wheel was done spinning, the television host grabbed an envelope from it and let Traci know the category was “phrase.” With the four-word phrase now on the board, ready to be filled in, Traci was given two out of 13 possible letters.
“So that’s all that we can start with,” Seacrest told the contestant. “So we need three more consonants and a vowel now.” Her second guess of the letter “N” was incorrect, which led Traci to admit that she was “a little nervous.”
“That’s okay,” Seacrest said, reassuring her. In total, Traci called out five letters. Two lit up on the board — “O” and “C.”
“Again, not too much more,” Seacrest added, noting that the clues to the phrase were still minimal. “But who knows? You’ve had a lot of good luck tonight. Maybe it’ll strike you.” He continued: “Phrase is the category. Ten seconds to try and solve it.”
With mere seconds left to guess the 4-word phrase with just four letters filled in, Traci confidently yelled, “They go way back!”
“Yes, that’s it!” Seacrest yelled back. As Traci and the audience cheered, a visibly surprised Seacrest circled the winner, playfully inspecting her for some type of wire or earpiece as he tried to figure out how she was able to solve the puzzle.
He then opened the envelope he’d grabbed earlier when she spun the wheel to reveal that Traci had just won $50,000. “Congratulations, that was amazing!” Seacrest told Traci as her husband walked over to congratulate her as well.
“Traci, what a solve! Here comes an ocean of money!” an announcer said as the trio continued to celebrate. Next, Seacrest revealed her grand total of $78,650 from the episode.
“How in the world did you solve that last one?” he asked. For Traci, the contestant said she simply “dug deep” to find the answer.
